Changed the oil, adjusted the powervalve arm, blew the dents out of the pipe and put a 42 pilot in. She is running hard, fast and clean (as witnessed by my entire neighborhood 10 minutes ago). All it needs now is a competent rider! I'm super excited. This event is gonna be a ridiculous amount of fun! Can't wait to see the pros drop the gate, round the corner and scream up HP hill. Finally gonna see, hear and smell some real motocross racing back in PNW
What I want to know is if Kelly mounted up his 165 cheater kit or will he bow to traditionalist peer pressure and race as a true 125?!
I planned to go up there and get practice in today as i have not raced moto in like 15 years :>) BUT NO i have to have a family reunion today and see all the people i see anyway!!!. Crap could have used that practice and setup time. Oh well, its just for fun. My goal is survive. See ya way early Sunday unless i roll up there tonight.
You mean your uphill wheelie loop-out? So it was planned? The 165 to much for you?? Haha just joking... Was an amazing turn-out. So many freaking 125's today it was unreal. Two heats of amatures around 35 people each heat. One amature LCQ, and One amature Main. Kelly qualified his heat. PC was one spot out of qualifying. He did however get the last qualifying spot in the LCQ, but the park had him down as a DNS, which is BS. He got a great start! I missed it, but apparently Kelly rung his bell a little, but quickly got up and finished the last 1.5 laps. Got some footage I'll review and put a short clip together of the swarming bees!
So my report. First off i am 48 and have never really raced MX. Last time I did was like 18 years ago on a TE610 and it did not end well But I HAD to do this 125 thing. So my goal was simple, to make the main and not kill myself. Mission accomplished. Got there real early, got signed up, checked out the track and waited for my practice. Got out there for practice and felt really out of my element. Why am i and only one standing up? MXers like to sit a lot. I must of looked a little out of place with my hand guards, head light, 3 gallon tank and standing. Anyway realized I had real good corner speed and line choice (thanks off road) but flat sucked at the jumps (thanks off road). there were two doubles and one big uphill blind landing jump that i was not grooving with. 3 laps of "practice" and i was toast :>) Time for the Qualifier. Very intimidating lining up at a national track for a drop gate MX that i have NEVER done. Lined up outside as to not spode and take everyone out from the middle. Someone else did that for me and I road around the pile and off i went feeling pretty good about my position. I was rolling the jumps and not feeling very fast but maintained and charged hard where i could. Ended up just qualifying. Cool. Goal one complete. Then the ridiculously long wait for the main. It was so long I had lost interest and was sleepy and just wanted to put my shorts on and drink a beer in the sun with my friends. So the main comes up. I line up outside again and had a OK start once again avoiding the first turn pile up. Saw a guy get center punched by a bike, that did not loo fun. This moto thing might be dangerous, everyone seems in such a hurry. So i tooled around at my snails pace just riding and dreaming about shorts and beer. Oh, i did think to myself, "Kelly, just clear those two doubles, this is your chance" so i did, every time and without issue... FUN. Seems all it takes is speed, who would have figured. I felt good, hitting the lines well, very good corner speed, clearing the doubles, having fun. One jump I rolled every time was this kind big (to me) blind landing up hill jump. I rolled it every time as I could see that ending badly for me and messing up my goal of not being killed. I would roll it and then do a monster wheelie up over the top and down the other side. The group of 10-20 people up there seemed to like it and cheered every time i did it so the next to last lap i thought i am doing a MOSTER wheelie........ and to the joy of everyone did a monster loop out. WOOOOHOOOOOOOO. Let 2-3 guys by there and could have had a 32nd place ! he he he. In the end this 48 year old moto spode on a borrowed off road bike got through some 80 plus guys to make the main and survived. Mission accomplished. Brandon and I were the sole husky contingent other than one fast guy i did not know who was upper mid pack in the pro class. Brandon did not make the main but snagged the last spot int he LCQ but they messed up and ripped him off and had his number wrong. Sad as he had a solid day going and grabbed the last spot for the main. Some random pix... Getting ready to do "battle" (with myself) I set the suspension up far stiffer, added pro level duct tape backgrounds and numbers and then just had fun with the remaining black duct tape. Also added my damper (brilliant move and did wonders for me and the choppy changing surface) and changed the bars setup and lever positions. Bike actually works very well. At one point I wheelied a good 3/4ths of the way up HP hill. FUN. Brandon and I getting ready to kick ass at the back of the pack Track was in nice shape... but typical Washougal, everything from goo, to silt, to hardpack makes things dicey at times. I have to say Blake's bike, The Motoz front tire and my damper made me feel good and i had no traction issues. What the F am I doing here? Oh well, I'm here, might as well try this moto thing... I tried to remember to look aggressive so no one would realize how slow i was going Its lonely when your not fast :>) this is what I wanted to look like :>) Nice track and conditions for a fun day... I think this is my long wheelie up HP hill. i found the top of the rev limit and tested the 165 kit integrity a few times Anyone got the 411 on this guy :>) Blowing past competitors (or most liekly getting passed) on the "ski jump" Good times. Thanks for the lending me your bike and taking pix Blake.
Awesome! Thanks for the pix boys. I had a blast yesterday. The track was great and hearing the small bores screaming was totally awesome. I dont really have anything too exciting to report. The bike ran great, I didn't break anything and I didn't crash. The 2nd pic of me that Kelly posted sparked a good memory of drag racing that Honda up HP hill. About a millisecond after that pic was taken I looked over at him trying to pshych him out, but instead it broke my concentration and I let the motor fall out of the power. Duh! I did pass him shortly after though. And during moto 1 I didn't see the checkered flag (nor the white flag) and kept pounding it out until I came up on some kid on a 85. Oops! I got off the track pretty quickly after that. The LCQ race was fun and I got the last qualifying spot, but they credited rider #311 and not #310, so I got credited for a big fat DNS. Oh well! I was tired, it was hot and I was ready for a cold beer, so me, Adam & Blake's crew cheered on Kelly from the hill. I had a total blast, but not sure I'd do it again. MX is hard on the body and bike far more than I ever realized. Huge respect to those that do it and do it well! I thought I recorded the first moto, but I goofed and didn't, but I did get the LCQ moto
expert opinion? Oh OK??? Bike worked great. Pilot worked just OK. Would have liked slightly more over-rev to clear HP hill in 4th and not feeling like I needed to shift up. bike railed out of corners and hooked up great. Love the 165 as you know.
"Brandon and I were the sole husky contingent other than one fast guy i did not know who was upper mid pack in the pro class. Brandon did not make the main but snagged the last spot int he LCQ but they messed up and ripped him off and had his number wrong. Sad as he had a solid day going and grabbed the last spot for the main." Thanks for the comment. I was the "fast" guy in the Pro Class. I feel like I could of been around a 10th place guy. I was stuck midpack both motos and ended up finishing 20th out of 42. I got a good start the 2nd moto but a guy went down in front of me in the S turn at the bottom of the down hill on the first lap and I got tangled up with a bunch of guys. Unfortunately I was not at all happy with how my bike ran over the weekend. I've got a 08 144 that I recently put a Keihin on. Everytime I came off the track I messed with jetting. I met Troffer and he gave me an RM needle which seemed to help a bit. It acted lean on top and would cut out and act like it was detonating through the whoops and up the hill..places where I was wide open for extended periods of time in 3rd and 4th gear. I went up on my main a few times and it never went away. The plug looked good and I run straight race gas and had a new top end so I was kind of at a loss. Overall the weekend was a blast. I'm 33 and had my Pro MX card from '99 to '02...I ride a lot but don't race much anymore and it's usually in the 30A class on my RMZ 450. It was intense to be out there with a full gate of fast kids and guys who are still riding Nationals and Supercross. I also rode the 250 2 stroke Support Class on my RM 250 and finished 3rd. It was great to be a part of this event. I have been trying to get the promotors to add 2 stroke classes for the last few years..it's so important for the sport in so many ways. I think the huge turnout and enthusiasm really showed the MX world in the Northwest that 2 stroke classes and events can be successful. I really wanted to put a Husky closer to the front but still pumped to come home healthy and smiling. I'll try to get and post some pics later this week.
Started thinking about that on the drive home last night! Remembered that my '00 125 SX ran very similar when the reeds went bad.
also make sure the ground on the coil is good. Many start loosing ground and then start fouling plugs. Probably not it but one if the usual suspects to check out.
